Make Your Point: PRECIPITATE

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pronounce PRECIPITATE:

For the verb, say "pruh SIP uh tate."

For the adjective, say "pruh SIP uh tut."

connect this word to others:

As we'll see in a second, the word precipitate traces back to the Latin caput, meaning "head." So do words like cabbage, cape, capital, capsize, chapter, chief, biceps and triceps (muscles that have multiple origins or "heads"), and, unpleasantly, decapitate.

See if you can recall some other words from caput:

1. A cap_____ is the crowning piece of a wall, or any finishing touch or crowning achievement.

2. To cap____ate is to surrender or give in. Not because you're surrendering your head for the chopping, exactly, but because you've organized your written terms of surrender under various headings.

3.To r_cap____ate is to sum something up, as if by restating all the headings in a document. Often we abbreviate that one to its first two syllables.

4. Someone who's armed cap-à-___ is wearing armor head to toe, or figuratively, is fully prepared to fight off a problem.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

Coyote goes down feet-first here. I really wanted a gif of him going headfirst, though. Can we just imagine it? Headfirst, off the cliff. Pshoooo.

(Source)

"Precipitate" most literally means "to throw headfirst, to hurl or fling headlong." Here, "pre-" means "before" in the literal sense of "forth, in front of;" and the rest comes from the Latin caput, meaning "head." (There's not actually an element in the word that means "throw" or "hurl;" that part is implied.)

For centuries in English, we've used "precipitate" to mean "to chuck someone off a cliff, metaphorically: to throw someone down into a terrible situation."

Today we still use a similar meaning. To precipitate something is to hurl it suddenly and violent downward.

More abstractly, to precipitate something is to cause it in a sudden, violent way.

Those are the meanings of the verb, pronounced "pruh SIP uh tate."

The adjective is pronounced a little differently: "pruh SIP uh tut." Precipitate (or precipitous) things are hasty, sudden, or violent. They can also just be very steep, like a sharp cliff.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Often a verb, the transitive kind: "The fight precipitated their breakup."

Also an adjective: "It was a precipitate breakup."

Other forms:

Much more common than the adjective "precipitate" is "precipitous." It, too, means "steep like a cliff, or sudden and hasty." It's so useful that we'll explore it later, in its own issue.

The other verb forms are "precipitated" and "precipitating."

The noun for the idea or act of something plummeting headlong, literally or figuratively, is "precipitation." This word can also mean "rain, snow, or anything else that falls from the clouds." ("Precipitate" is also a noun for these substances.)

how to use it:

Pick the formal, common verb "precipitate" when you want to sound serious as you describe some cause that leads quickly to some drastic effect. Usually we say that a comment, an event, or a decision precipitates that effect.

For example, an argument could precipitate a breakup, a scandal could precipitate an investigation, a person's sudden illness could precipitate their death, a rise in grocery prices could precipitate outrage, and a hurricane could precipitate a crisis as people are stranded without food or water.

examples:

"[Edward Bond's] first important play, 'Saved,' precipitated the end of theatrical censorship in Britain."
— Benedict Nightingale, New York Times, 5 March 2024

"One late Friday evening when I was nearing the end of my tenth year an event occurred that precipitated the greatest crisis of my childhood: I was an eyewitness to a murder."
— Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy, 1986

has this page helped you understand "precipitate"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "precipitate" without saying "bring on" or "trigger."

try it out:

The word "precipitate" usually suggests a steep, sharp fall: a sudden descent, or a violent flinging downward.

We'll keep that in mind as we fill in the blanks: "(Something) precipitated (something awful and sudden that seems like a downward plunge)."

Example 1: "As I'm trying to break a bad habit, an overly stressful day can precipitate a relapse."

Example 2: "[The young prince] bled frequently and spontaneously. A playful fall, or a nick in his skin—even a bumpy horse ride—could precipitate disaster."
— Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene, 2016

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "The Tip of the Tongue!"

You know how sometimes you'll be reaching for a perfect word, and it's right there at the tip of your tongue, where you can almost taste it? Somehow that word is caught in the liminal space between your memory and your mouth. This month, let's play with that experience, and practice resolving it to our satisfaction.

I'll give you a short quote from Chris Palmer's heartfelt and eye-opening new book, Achieving a Good Death: A Practical Guide to the End of Life, along with a blank where Chris has deployed a truly perfect word. To help bring that word to the tip of your tongue, I'll describe it both physically and semantically.

Try this one today:

"Our very _____—our realization of how little time we each have on Earth—can lead us to think about why we're here and what we can do to make the most of our lives."

The word is 2 or 3 syllables long, depending on your pronunciation. It sounds like, and is related to, "transport" and "transportation," but the meaning is loftier, more abstract, and bittersweet.

It means "the quality of staying or lasting a short time only."

To reveal the right word, scroll to the bottom of the issue.

review this word:

1. The opposite of PRECIPITATE, the verb, could be

A. FIND.
B. ALIGN.
C. PREVENT.

2. Deborah Heiligman points out that "in Jane Austen novels, a death often precipitates _____, which propels the heroine to seek a husband."

A. a desire for change
B. the loss of a fortune
C. quietly in the background

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PRECIPITATE

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